


Blood on a Marble Wall

by FeyresUnbecoming



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Dark, Dark Klaus Mikaelson, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:00:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25504825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeyresUnbecoming/pseuds/FeyresUnbecoming
Summary: A growl from Klaus was directed at her, and for the first time in centuries, she flinched. For the first time in centuries, she was scared of Klaus.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Comments: 11
Kudos: 46





	Blood on a Marble Wall

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Billie Eilish's You Should See Me in a Crown (this fic does NOT have the same vibe as that song). I based it on The Drug In Me Is Reimagined (musically at least, not really with the lyrics).

**Blood on a Marble Wall**

“Klaus,” the pleading tone tasted bitter in Caroline’s mouth, “please.” Her please came out breathy and sounded nothing like her. She promised herself she wouldn’t do this. Yet here she was.

A growl from Klaus was directed at her, and for the first time in centuries, she flinched. For the first time in centuries, she was scared of Klaus.

“This isn’t you. You aren’t this person anymore.” Silver lined her eyes. “This isn’t the man I fell in love with.” She hadn’t loved Klaus right away. And she sure as hell never tried to change him. Not really. She may have influenced him over the years, but he grew into the man she loved without her help. She hadn’t taken the cruel man she’d first met, who had nearly killed her, who had nearly killed her friends, and molded him into what she wanted.

He became what she wanted on his own. Klaus was not who she had wanted to want. But she did. Long before she ever admitted anything, to herself or others.

“The man you fell in love with, _sweetheart,_ wasn’t real. You saw what I wanted you to see.”

Biting back her sobs at hearing his pet name for her used so maliciously, she spat out a response. “I didn’t see what you wanted me to see! I saw everything you wanted to hide from me, everything you tried to hide from the world. And you couldn’t stop me from seeing past it all. You didn’t even try to stop me.” Klaus turned so she couldn’t read his face. Because she could understand what he was feeling before he could even begin to decipher it. “I didn’t fall in love with you because of the show you put on for me, for the sweet gestures, or expensive gifts. I fell in love with your vulnerability. I fell in love by watching the strongest creature in the world _feel_ something. Something other than the hate you wore as an armor for a millennium. I fell in love with you, Klaus, because I saw _you_ ! I saw the man behind the monster. I found that the monster wasn’t cruel. Not really. He was capable of love. He was capable of loving _me._ ”

The tears finally fell out as Klaus flashed to her and pinned her against the wall, arm across her chest and baring his sharpened teeth at her. Eyes flashing gold sent a pang of pain to her chest where he pressed with just a little too much force. “Do I still look capable of love to you? Do I still look like _I love you_?” 

Confidence she no longer felt still shone in her eyes. “ _Yes_ ,” she snarled, her monosyllabic answer an echo from so long ago. But Klaus no longer would hold her if she was in pain. Would no longer pull her back to his chest and murmur sweet nothings in her ear while stroking her head. Would no longer tell her of the genuine beauty the world offered. Would no longer offer to show her that world. She wasn’t sure if she could ever find beauty again in a world where Klaus was like _this._

A glint of humor was hidden in his blue eyes. Like he thought her tears were funny. Like he thought her love for him was funny. Like it couldn’t matter less to him how she viewed him. “Is that so, love?” 

A wave of nausea hit her in a way she forgot it could, like she was still a small, human, teenaged girl crying over a boy who didn’t love her back. Or who didn’t love her enough. But Klaus was not a boy. Klaus was the man who had promised to be her last love. And she was still the girl whose skin she had thought she had shed long ago as she grew into herself. She was still the girl _stupid_ enough to believe that promise.

“What is it, sweetheart? Did I hurt your _feelings_? What a shame.” 

Caroline shook her head to clear her thoughts as she tried to take his venomous words in stride and not let them crack the armor she was so used to discarding around him. Voice steady in a way one would not expect, she calmly tilted her head up to him and answered without an ounce of shame, “You are hurting my feelings, Klaus.” Her tears had stopped shedding and her face was beginning to dry. “But not as much as you are your own.” Klaus locked eyes with her as she softly shook her head, “I thought we were past this. I thought we were past you pushing me away to _protect_ me. The only thing you’re trying to protect me from this time is _you._ And I’m not scared of you.” Her next words came out hesitantly, almost bitter on her tongue. “Maybe I’m scared of who you could be. Maybe I’m even scared of who you used to be.” Her speech grew softer, but not weaker. “But not you. Not _my_ Klaus.” Her eyes were imploring and probing. Practically screaming at him to give her any sign, any sign at all, that he was still in there somewhere. 

All his siblings were once again daggered, strangers' hearts ripped and scattered about at any sign of ‘disrespect,’ decapitated bodies of allies strewn about in a careless manner. Cities burned on his command, there was no longer anyone alive who did not know Klaus Mikaelson was. An Original, a hybrid, a king. A king who needed no crown to proclaim his title, not when he had a wall of dead rotting to prove it. A wall of those who supported or oppressed him. Those who might have cheered his name and those who would have damned it.

Klaus’s eyes grew cold, and with it Caroline’s heart. No heat was put behind his next words, no emotion at all, except maybe mild disgust. “I am not your anything.”

Klaus moved away from Caroline, unpinning her from the wall, her quickly healing bruise left by his arm pressed against her chest burned, and she relished that she could feel anything at all.

She walked away from Klaus without looking back. Beginning to turn the handle to the first of many doors she planned to put between her and Klaus she felt a rush of wind before a hand gripped her heart. 

“Klaus,” she whispered horrified.

He stood in front of her exit with a hollow look in his eyes, “I told you I would be your last love,”—a hint of what might have been grief or regret wormed its way onto his face—“and I intend to keep that promise.” This time when Caroline felt her heart drop, it dropped to the floor as a grieving Klaus clutched her body and stroked her forehead, rocking her back and forth, wishing it hadn’t needed to end like this. Wishing it never had to end at all as sobs he hadn’t cried for centuries all came crashing out of him, while he held the body of his last love. As he held the body of his Caroline.

He rose from the ground holding her body bridal style, and approached the coffin he had been dragging with him everywhere, just in case this day ever came, gently laying her to rest.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it!


End file.
